Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Come one, come all and join us this Wednesday, April 27th, from 5-7 pm at CAC Beardsley Community Farm for our sixth ULS Workshop: Blogging and Zines. We'll be joined by guest writers and artists, Dale Mackey and Beth Meadows. We will be making and documenting things.

Monday, April 18, 2011

My brother took photos of this great terraced garden in East Knoxville. I'd say this could earn someone a Level Three and Level Five badge. Maybe some others. Onward and upward; work with what you've got.

This coming Wednesday, April 20th, 5-7 pm at CAC Beardsley Community Farm, 1719 Reynolds St., behind the Cansler Boys and Girls Club. Wear closed toe shoes and dress for the weather. If you have containers for small plant starts, please bring those too.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Jeff Ross talks plants with the Urban Land Scouts at CAC Beardsley Community Farm.

We had a great visitor to last week's workshop, Jeff Ross, the head gardener at Blackberry Farm. Jeff strolled around Beardsley with two dozen eager, note-taking Urban Land Scouts and talked about various edible plants in the landscape, among them: honeysuckle, mahonia (aka: oregon grape holly), dandelions, day lilies, mulberry, wild lettuce, chickweed, wild garlic, yarrow, and on. We concluded the trip with a satisfying round of dropping our various findings into a skillet full of hot oil and sampling things like breaded dandelion heads, flash-fried yarrow leaves, onion flowers and roots.

It makes a real difference to learn about edible plants from someone as knowledgeable as Jeff Ross and it was doubly lucky for all of us that he works at a four-star hotel with famous and inventive chefs. It's hard to get fired up about eating, say dandelion greens, if you don't have a nice recipe for them. One woman asked if frying these wild edibles negated the health benefits of them. For me the point is not the benefit to my body (although I am glad for the vitamins and minerals found in these plants), it is the mental shift that comes with harvesting and consuming in this way. If you'd like to see a copy of notes from the walk, you can email me here (passage - at- urbanlandscouts - dot- com) or check out Kat's post about the workshop. Thanks so much to Jeff Ross for sharing his time and knowledge!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

This Wednesday, April 13th, 5-7 pm, at CAC Beardsley Community Farm we'll work on earning our Level 4 badges. The workshops are free. Beardsley Farm is at 1719 Reynolds St., behind the Cansler Boys and Girls Club. Wear closed toe shoes and dress to be outside, rain or shine.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Wahoo. We have here at Urban Land Scout HQ our very first video documentation. Not only did Stephanie and Michael email their evidence in scant days after the HOMEGROWN show at Fluorescent, they shot a video! Wooo. Let's hear it for contemporary media. Well done, young scouts. Go forth rejoicing and gently watering your bombs. Keep us posted on how they do.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

At the Level 2 workshop last week we walked around Knoxville College and noted some edible perennials for the Urban Land Scouts map. Mapping is the second step in Urban Land Scout-dom and a natural compliment to the practice of observation. Now is a great time to wander your neighborhood (and hopefully well beyond it) to consider what's growing, what's not, and what could. Many area fruit trees (peaches, pear, plum, apple, etc.) are on the tail end of flowering, but there's still time to note any blossoms you see. Take note now and plan to return in fall to see if the fruits are edible (or tasty).

If you'd like to add a plant to the ULS map, please send an email to passage - at - urbanlandscouts - dot - com and I'll get you added right away.

The Land Scout's Pledge

I will to the best of my abilitybe a good steward of the land where I liveby cultivating native and edible plants,promoting species diversity,sharing the fruits of my labor and knowledge,and propagating Land Scouting in barren lands.

Join the Land Scouts

While you don't have to join the Land Scouts to practice good stewardship, becoming an official Scout enables you to earn our embroidered patches.

You can read up here about the activities required to earn badges. If you would like to earn a badge, complete the prescribed action, and mail documentation of your experience to katie [at] urbanlandscouts [dot] com. We will send you your badges as well as a pdf form to fill out.